Michael John Neill's genealogy website. Things that cross my path, general research suggestions, and whatever else ...with a little bit of attitude. I don't post "news" just to post it, never post a press release (edited or otherwise), don't feign excitement, and pretty much say what I think.

07 August 2013

Evidently What I Found Was Not Proof But There's Evidence I Found It

When I locate a pension application for a widow where she states her maiden name, that's evidence of her maiden name--not proof. One document making a statement is not proof of that statement.

When I group the pension application where she states her maiden name, along with the church record that gives a slightly different variant of that name, along with her father's will that names her as his daughter, and every other record that provides a statement of evidence about her maiden name and I discuss those records, analyze them, and write up an analysis-that's proof.

Proof is the summarizing and analyzing of evidence (statements) about a person, event, or relationship and stating the conclusion based upon that evidence. It doesn't have to be difficult or overly verbose, particularly if records are easily located and consistent with each other. It when they difficult to locate or inconsistent that writing up the proof is more difficult because there's not always much evidence upon which to base our proof.

Evidence we find. Proof we write up.

The only way to "find proof" is to discover that someone else has done the complete exhaustive research and written it up. Otherwise what we find is evidence.

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